May 22, 2018
New report aims to increase use of modern flexible working practices to improve lives of employees
Businesses are being urged to increase their use flexible working practices in a bid to improve the lives of staff and end gender discrimination in the workplace. According to the report, A Manifesto for Change: A Modern Workplace for a Flexible Workforce, one of the main barriers to gender equality is employers’ reluctance to adoptnon-traditional working practices. The report calls on employers to embrace flexible working. The report from Timewise and Deloitte sets out a five point action plan, which it claims will enable UK businesses to bring about the change needed to address ‘outdated’ working practices. The plan is based on findings from a a survey of almost 2,000 professional workers, 92 percent of whom are women, as well as interviews with UK business leaders.











More than a third of employees’ waste significant chunks the working day because of difficulties retrieving valuable information, with two-fifths of businesses admitting to having no processes in place to capture, record and retrieve business communications. The research conducted by 3Gem on behalf of TeleWare, claims that 36 percent of employees have wasted a lot of the working day attempting to resolve an issue when they have forgotten valuable information. A similar number (34 percent) explained that forgetting information has led them to deal ineffectively with customers, suppliers or clients. While around a quarter have missed important deadlines (26 percent) or let their colleagues down (25 percent) due to not having the necessary information front of mind. Britain is not doing very well when it comes to workplace productivity. According to the latest G7 productivity analysis from ONS, in terms of output per hour worked, the UK scored 15.1 percent below the average for the rest of the G7 advanced economies.
Over half (52 percent) of workers in a new poll have admitted looking for a new job because of frustrations over what they see as outdated ways of thinking around work practices and automation at their current company. The 








Less than a quarter (23 percent) of employees feel completely informed about the values of the organisation they work for and just 19 percent of employees feel completely informed about their employer’s corporate mission claims a new survey by Reward Gateway. These statistics are even more problematic when you consider that 83 percent of employers say it’s critical to the success of their business that employees understand their mission. Recognition is one of the key drivers needed to ingrain employees with a company’s values and corporate mission, however, 40 percent of employees don’t agree that their employer recognises them when they demonstrate the values their company cares about. Furthermore, the study has found a break-down of communication and trust between employees and their employers. 81 percent of senior decision makers say that their organisation is transparent with employees about how they plan to achieve the company mission. However, only 22 percent of employees say they strongly agree that they trust their employer to communicate information openly and honestly.



